Race Report: 2022 Oakland GP - Men’s P123

Race: Oakland Grand Prix - Men’s P123

Date: 9/25/22

AVRT Racers: Conor Austin, George Wehner, Cameron O’Reilly

Top Results: Cameron (11/61)

Course: Four corner crit. Hairpin T1, slight uphill going into T3, slight downhill after T4. VERY windy.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7830863689

Nutrition: 1.5 bottles of Skratch/Maltodextrin before and during the race

Race Recap: After some rain during earlier races the course had a bit of time to dry out for the last race of the day. The wind, however, had picked up significantly. This proved to be a significant factor during the race, as the entire peloton would get blown across the road from the gusts swirling between the buildings. The other main factor in the race was Tyler Williams (L39ION), who showed up to tear the race apart, drilling it for the first few laps, establishing the winning break, and eventually riding away to a solo victory.

During the first few laps all I could do was hang on. The field was immediately single-file and people were getting dropped left and right. There was also a crash in T3 that I avoided, but had to chase back on after hitting the brakes. I started to learn where the surges were and weren’t happening in the pace and got steadily more confident picking up spots on the inside before T1. This saved me from needing to surge hard on the start/finish straight; you can see the peaks and valleys in my Strava file level off through the race as I kept more speed into and through the hairpin.

About half way through the race with Tyler Williams (L39ION) off the front, I jumped when a promising move by Quinn Felton (Team CA) went with Roman Kilun (Mike’s Bikes) covering. While the field responded and we were caught two laps later, I was glad to have the awareness to identify a good move and the fitness to take action and go with it.

A little while after, another move with Quinn went but I wasn’t in position to cover. This group ended up being the winning break, but I was determined to race as hard as I could through to the end. With about 3.5 laps to go as the remains of the field hit the demoralizingly strong cross/headwind and slowed, I saw Ariel Hermann (Thirsty Bear) moving up the left and attacked up the right into T3. Neither of us had teammates up the road, so we were both fully committed. I closed a small gap to Ariel and with a few covering riders from Mike’s Bikes and P74, we got separation from the field. With only two of us working in the break there was very little room for error, so I ended up working more than would have been ideal. We got to the line and I was out-sprinted by the rest of the group, narrowly missing the top-10.

Overall I was happy with how the race went. This was a tough field on a hard (for me) course and I was able to achieve my best personal result so far in a P12 crit. I’m excited by the progress I’ve made this season and am looking forward to even more AVRT representation and results in the P12 fields in 2023!

Credit: Jeff Vander Stucken Photography